The ruling late Thursday from the state's Third District Court of Appeal blocks any additional environmental surveys or drilling tests on private lands. The court found that the state must first go through formal eminent domain proceedings entitling landowners to just compensation.

State officials have warned in the past that any delay in accessing private lands for testing could drive up the cost of the project and perhaps threaten its feasibility altogether.

But a spokeswoman for the state Department of Water Resources said Monday that with regard to drilling, the state had already anticipated the need to proceed with eminent domain in its schedule and therefore expects no major delay as a result of the ruling.

And enough of the environmental surveys have already been completed to allow permits to be issued authorizing the project, said spokeswoman Nancy Vogel.

"We don't think there will be delays," she said.

The state had already filed court papers seeking eminent domain rights in four counties, only to drop those requests. Vogel said that was because some landowners relented and agreed to allow access. She also said that a realignment of the proposed tunnels last summer reduced the need to drill on some of the private lands.

Vogel did say the state has more drilling work to do in new locations and is attempting to come to agreement with landowners there. If that fails, the state will launch eminent domain proceedings once again, as required by the court, she said.

Stockton attorney Thomas Keeling on Monday called the state's announcement that there would be no delay in the tunnels project "misleading, at best," pointing out that there are no eminent domain proceedings currently under way.

Contact reporter Alex Breitler at (209) 546-8295 or abreitler@recordnet.com. Follow him at recordnet.com/breitlerblog and on Twitter @alexbreitler.